History Courses

This course surveys world history of the ancient era.

This course examines the foundations of Western Culture.

This course and HHS 124, 223, 224 investigate the social, economic, intellectual, political and cultural trends in Europe from the Middle Ages to the present in lectures and discussion.

A continuation of HHS 123.

This course and HHS 126 examine the main trends in the socioeconomic, political, and diplomatic history of the U.S. from the Pre-Revolutionary period to the present.

A continuation of HS 125. Group B, 100-level course.

A topical introduction to the humanistic study of science and technology. Discussion will cover the nature of scientific ideas, the scientific method, and scientific change; the structure of scientific communities, relations between science and technology, and the place of science in society.

A historical survey of science and technology. Principal topics include science and technology in prehistory, Egyptian and Babylonian science and culture, Greek science, Medieval technology and science, the Scientific Revolution, the making of the modern physical science, Darwin, and the Darwinian Revolution.

This course provides a survey of the origin and development of the modern Islamic World. Beginning in sixth-century Arabia, the course follows the theological and political development of the Muslim community. It explores the reasons for the great appeal Islam has had and the reasons for its spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Southern Asia as well as other regions of the world.

This is an intensive writing and research seminar designed to introduce students to the world of historical research and the historian's craft. History majors are required to take this course during the spring semester of their junior year.

An analysis of the intellectual and methodological transformations of sixteenth and seventeenth century science and the development of the modern world view. This course focuses on the major scientific figures of the age (Galileo, Descartes, Newton) with particular attention to the study of original texts. The social and institutional transformations of science in this period are also considered.

This course analyzes science as a social entity. The connections between science and society are studied in the first instance through a historical survey of the externals of science: the non-cognitive social, institutional, and professional dimensions of the scientific enterprise. On a case-study basis, the course proceeds to investigate more theoretical problems concerning relations between scientific knowledge and social structure, particularly as interpreted in the Strong Program of the Sociology of Knowledge. Students complete individual projects arising out of themes developed in class.

An examination of the historical process whereby the scientific enterprise became a central concern of the state in modern industrial societies.

This course surveys the origins and significance of technological developments in American history from the first settlements to the present. It emphasizes the social, cultural, political, and economic significance of technology in American history.

This course examines instances in American history in which “scientific” conclusions were widely perceived to be authoritative and true but were later shown to be fraudulent or false. The course examines effects that conclusions of this sort had not only on the culture at large but particularly on creative writers whose work in turn evokes tension between personal insight and faith in empirically derived “truth.”

A study of early Roman civilization from the founding of the city of Rome in 753 B.C. to the collapse of the Republic under Julius Caesar. Readings in ancient sources and modern texts.

"America Cultural History" provides an introduction to ways of analyzing conflicts between dominant and minority groups in American life.

This course focuses on the history of the United States from the perspective of women's experiences and the role gender plays in shaping and defining American history from the colonial era to the present. It examines women's social, political, and economic lives; their roles in society, their familial roles, their struggle to achieve civil rights; changes in their legal status; and the rise of feminism.

An exploration of the African-American experience in the United States from the time of the Atlantic Slave Trade to the present. Topics include social and political dynamics shaping African-American history with particular attention focused on Reconstruction, the Great Migration, and the Civil Rights Movement. Numerous African-American leaders and their concepts for an African-American identity are also emphasized, including the W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington debates, as well as speeches from Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.

The course begins with the contradictions inherent in semi-feudal Russia during the age of imperialism which culminated in the collapse of the Tsarist autocracy during World War I. There is a close analysis of the revolutionary year 1917 to determine the reasons for the failure of the liberal Kerensky regime on the one hand, and the rise of the Soviets and Bolsheviks on the other. Marxist-Leninist ideology is studied and compared to economic, social, and political programs during the revolution and during its consolidation in the period of the civil war and in the Stalinist era. The course also covers more recent Russian history.

This course is a general survey of the Middle East beginning in pre-Islamic Arabia in the year 600 and ending with the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt in 1798. The course examines the early formation of the Muslim community and follows its growth under the Umayyid and Abbasid empires. It also explores the influence of the Persians and the Turks in the region, examining the Ottoman and Safavid empires, the Mongol invasion, and ultimately the influence of Western European powers leading to Napoleon's conquest of Egypt in 1798.

This course is a survey of the development of the modern Middle East from the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt in 1798 to the present. The course examines the early efforts for political reform and the beginnings of nationalism with particular emphasis on the period following World War I and the development of modern Middle Eastern nation states.

This course is an introductory survey of an important aspect of Islamic civilization, the scientific and technological achievements of early Islam. The passion for knowledge led early Muslims to internalize, assimilate and expand the scientific knowledge of older civilizations, including those of Greece, India, China and the Byzantium. This course explores their accomplishments in cosmology, mathematics, astrology, geography, medicine, natural sciences, alchemy, optics, engineering and architecture. It also explores the ways in which Muslim scientific achievements influenced the advance of science in the Western world from the Crusaders and the Renaissance to the modern era. The contributions of early Muslims to the advance of Western civilization in general and sciences and arts in particular are not necessarily well integrated phenomena into the Western historiography. This course attempts to fill this gap.

Selected topics in American diplomatic history are studied, including nationalism, imperialism, economic diplomacy, missionary diplomacy, isolationism, world war, cold war, and detente. Readings include diplomatic correspondence, documents, interpretive articles, and monographs.

Please contact the Registrar for more information.
Phone: (201)216-5555
Fax: (201)216-8030
E-mail: registrar@stevens.edu

An analysis of the intellectual and methodological transformations of sixteenth and seventeenth century science and the development of the modern world view. This course focuses on the major scientific figures of the age (Galileo, Descartes, Newton) with particular attention to the study of original texts. The social and institutional transformations of science in this period are also considered.

Please contact the Registrar for more information.
Phone: (201)216-5555
Fax: (201)216-8030
E-mail: registrar@stevens.edu

German history from its origins, but concentrating on the period from 1870 to the present. German industrialization, the dominant role of Prussia in unification, World War I, the Weimar and Nazi periods, World War II and the post-war era, including current developments, will be covered.

A survey of 20th century Middle Eastern history and politics. This course will explore the issues of nationalism, secularism and social transformations set within the predominantly Islamic Middle East. The different paths adopted by Turkey, Iran and Egypt will be among the major topics to be explored.

An analysis of the intellectual and methodological transformations of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century science and the development of the modern world view. This course focuses on the major scientific figures of the age (Galileo, Descartes, Newton), with particular attention to the study of original texts. The social and institutional transformations of science in this period are also considered.

An historical and theorectical analysis of the Constitutional Convention, the US Constitution, its foundations, conceptual and idealistic basis for the national government.  The decision-making and policymaking roles of the US Supreme Court through case law is closely examined as it relates to governmental powers and federalism.

An exploration of the modern American political experience from the turn of the twentieth century to the present.  This course examines the historical significance of the American policymaking process.  Discussions center on presidential administrations, Congress and political parties addressing domestic agendas and policies.  Highlighted eras promoting government activism include Progressivism, New Dealism, Great Society measures and recent political proposals.

An historical and political analysis of the US Constitution as it relates to civil liberties and civil rights.  The decision-making and policymaking roles of the US Supreme Court through case law in these areas are closely examined.

An interdisciplinary inquiry into individual and group motivations underlying socially significant historical experiences. Selected issues include personality formation through the ages (Martin Luther and Andrew Jackson), individual and collective consciousness (Anne Hutchinson and the Salem witchcraft hysteria), and psychobiographies of Woodrow Wilson, Adolf Hitler, and others.

Selected contemporary persepctives on European history since the French Revolution up to the creation of the European Union.

Please contact the Registrar for more information.
Phone: (201)216-5555
Fax: (201)216-8030
E-mail: registrar@stevens.edu

This course concerns social, economic, political, and cultural impressions of the Middle East reported by American writers, diplomats, and missionaries during the nineteenth century. American interest in Middle Eastern arts, particularly architecture and furniture design, are also explored.

Analyses of the foundation, expansion, and decline of the Roman Empire with an evaluation of its place in history.

This course explores the history of mediums of exchange and the consequent development of credit and credit exchange mechanisms from earliest times until the present. In particular, this course examines the relationship of money and credit to the technological environment and how evolving technologies, ranging from metallurgy to electronics, have created and shaped historical eras. Periods covered include pre-feudal, feudal, early capitalist, and modern times.

An historical analysis of post World War II suburban-urban growth policies. Examines the successes and failures of developmental proposals, especially social and environmental implications of Federal Housing Administrative incentives: de-facto segregation, commercial-residential sprawl; Smart Growth; New Urbanism and other high density concepts. Urban redevelopment policies, include brownfield, waterfront sites and the public provision of cultural and tourism infrastructure; incentives to promote gentrification; historic preservation; mixed income/community feasibility; and economic development policies, such as business improvement, tax abatements, enterprise zones and transit villages.

An analysis of history taking material factors into account. Course probes this theme from the point of view of historical change over time, case studies of material factors shaping history, and historiographically, that is, how the historical and theoretical literature has treated the exigencies of the material world and parameters governing human interaction with the material world.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the United States was fundamentally transformed. This course examines the nation’s genesis as an industrial and economic power and society’s adaptation to the industrial age. It also considers the impact of industrialism on such historical problems as technological change, economic development, race and gender relations, political participation, reform movements, urbanization, immigration, imperialism, and globalization.

"Religion in America" maps various routes pursued by religious groups in the United States--a culture in which there has been no "established" religion and in which symbiotic relations between the secular world and religious practices/beliefs continually evolve.  The course will look principally at religion as a business, religion as a force in politics, and religion in conflict with science and technology.

This course explores the modern economic and political development of China, Korea, and Japan from the late nineteenth century to the present and responses to Western imperialism. The rise of Chinese and Korean communism and Japanese fascism during the twentieth century are especially emphasized. There is also a close examination and comparison of development in additional Asian countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam.

To confront the student with social, political, legal, and ethical issues that professional scientists and engineers are being forced to reexamine in the light of the computer revolution. The course reviews traditional principles while challenging the student to recognize that technological innovation often drives social change and, specifically, that innovations as sweeping as the rapid and continuing changes in computer technology sometimes lead scientists and engineers into completely uncharted territory.

A study of the emergence and development of the Turkish Republic. The course examines the Republic’s origins in the Ottoman Empire and traces its development from the period after the First World War to the present.

A survey of the development of Arab Nationalist movements in the Middle East beginning in the period following WWI and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and tracing the different approaches to nationalism adopted in response to late Colonial forces and the emerging state of Israel.

A comparative review of the differing histories and alternative approaches to nationalism in the three major Middle Eastern States.

A survey of the History of Central Asia from the period of Persian domination through the Mongol period, the development of the Khanates leading to the Russian conquest, and finally to today’s reemergence of autonomous states.

An examination of the economic, social and political transformations that created one of Europe’s most powerful empires from 1299 until 1918. The course follows the growth and later dismemberment of the Empire, with special focus on the continuities found in the region today.

Please contact the Registrar for more information.
Phone: (201)216-5555
Fax: (201)216-8030
E-mail: registrar@stevens.edu

Legal and moral issues associated with just and unjust wars in historical perspective and the issue of war crimes in international, legal, and moral terms.

Taught through problem-based learning techniques, the course entails intensive readings on American genesis of technologies through mainly biographical accounts ranging from Eli Whitney’s rifles with interchangeable parts to Jim Clark’s development of Netscape in Silicon Valley, and the contemporary role of universities in generating intellectual property. Such topics as the inventive-entrepreneurial process, patents, and the role of government in sponsoring research and development, and the development of Management of Technology techniques are covered.

This course is a social and cultural history of engineering. It examines the nature and the role of the engineer and engineering in Western Civilization, the emergence of engineering in Europe, the rise of American engineering professions, the role of engineers in American society, and gender, ethical considerations and contemporary issues in the engineering profession.

A survey of major developments in the history and geography of Planet Earth.

The impact of the Norman Conquest on kingship, government, and social structure; the reign of the Tudors on church and state; the Puritan and Lockean revolutions on the development of Parliament and Common Law; the two party system on reform; the industrial revolution on economic power and Empire; and Britain’s role in world wars and the twentieth century. Particular attention is paid to the development of individual rights.

The life and times of the Renaissance artist-engineer, the institutions and influences which created his imagination, inventiveness, and great works of art. The course also covers what he was not, exploding popular myths about his achievements, and investigates his life on a personal, more human level.

Examination of the history of medical science in the Western World from Greek antiquity to the present.

This course takes a thematic approach to the history of technology in  the modern era.  Topics may include the study of invention, innovation,  and standardization; industrial research and development; technological  systems; transnational exchanges: histories of gender, labor, and race:  and the emergence of a global 'Network Society.'

A survey of recent trends in the application of ecological and geographical perspectives in historical studies. Some emphasis on historiography is appropriate for thesis writers.

Research topics in history and methods of historical scholarship.